Site Principal Investigator – Anne Peters, MD |Dr. Peters is currently a professor at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and the Director of the USC Clinical Diabetes Programs. Her focus is on improving the lives of people with diabetes and trying to develop new ways of approaching diabetes care. She runs two diabetes centers, one in affluent Beverly Hills and one in underserved East Los Angeles.
Dr. Peters has been a principal investigator on multiple clinical trials focusing on diabetes and diabetes prevention. She leads a community based diabetes prevention initiative and collaborates with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to help children and adolescents with obesity and diabetes. She is currently the Principal Investigator on two NIH grants and has been the recipient of numerous foundation awards.
She has been an invited speaker at many local, national and international medical conferences. Dr. Peters has authored three books on diabetes and over 100 articles appearing in multiple peer-reviewed medical journals. She serves on the ABIM Endocrine Board and the Board of the ADA. Dr. Peters received the ADA Outstanding Physician Clinician Award in 2008 and the 2010 Bernardo Houssay Award from the National Minority Quality Forum for her work with the underserved.

Site Research Coordinator – Valerie Ruelas MSW | Valerie Ruelas is the Director of the Community Diabetes Initiative of the University of Southern California (USC) and manages the program’s research grants and projects including two center grants, LookAhead Action for Health in Diabetes and UCLA/USC Center for Population Health and Health Disparities “P50”. She has received grants from the California Community Foundation and worked with the South Los Angeles community to establish a farmers market in Watts and develop a promotora program to assist in the Hubert Humphrey Health Center’s diabetes program. She has also received grants from the USDA – Network for a Healthy California and RoseHills Foundation to conduct community nutrition education and healthy cooking classes at the East Los Angeles Farmers’ Market. She is the Principal Investigator on a project to evaluate the East and South Los Angeles Farmers’ Markets and Co-Investigator on a random digit dial community evaluation to assess the demographics, food and physical activity behaviors of individuals living in East and South Los Angeles. She is the Project Director of the USC subcontract to the P50 program project, “Family and Neighborhood Interventions to Reduce Heart Disease Risk in East L.A” and additionally serves as faculty to the P50 Research and Education program to provide expertise in community engagement and sits on the national Project Managers subcommittee. She is the Co-PI on a current study to evaluate the impact of menu labeling on adolescent and families with children ages 5-17 and a study to implement lifestyle changes in faith-based settings. Her overall goal is to continue to seek funding and implement and evaluate medical and community based programs aimed at reducing obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

University of Southern California’s consent form for the D2d study is available to read below in English and Spanish: